When I was born my maternal grandmother and both my paternal grandparents were still alive. My Grandpa Thompson died when I was seven, and I honestly don't remember any meaningful interaction with him. I don't remember ever sitting on his knee; I don't remember even any conversations we ever had. I'm sure we must have, our regular Sunday drive destination with Dad was his parents' house. I remember the way he looked, but mostly I remember running downstairs to explore their basement while the grown ups stayed upstairs to talk.
I remember a lot more of my Grandma Thompson. She lived the longest of all my grandparents, and we continued driving to visit her on Sundays (or she'd come to us, for dinner) for years and years. My dad is her eldest son and the only one of her kids who lived in the state, so we saw her a lot. She ate very slowly—we'd sometimes linger at the table for up to 30 minutes after we were all finished eating dinner, while she ate and talked. And she loved the attention that being sick got her. As my own father said, "She'd rather go to the hospital than out to dinner." She was the landing place for all my out-of-state cousins, so I spent many a happy day there at her house playing and chasing, running up and down the sidewalk and out in the back yard. My dad's youngest sister Aunt Kathy lived on the east coast the whole time I was growing up, and so she'd come for a month at a time in the summer to visit. And I'd spend days and night at grandma's playing with my east coast cousin Leslie, having the grandest time. Grandma Thompson had trees that every year bore the most delicious bing cherries, bushels and bushels of them. "Don't eat too many, you'll get diarrhea," my mom always warned. I ate all I could hold and did fine digestively. ;) Grandma always gave me one dollar for every birthday and every Christmas, clear up until I got married. After I married birthdays were just a card, and Christmas was some dishtowels. She died while I was on vacation in the Pacific Northwest, the day after I found out I was pregnant with Ethan. I missed her funeral.
I know it is bad form for a parent to admit to a favorite child, and I'm sure the same applies to grandparents with their grandchildren. But I have no problem with reverse favoritism. My mom's mom, Grandma Harrison, was hands down my favorite grandparent. She died when I was 18, and I miss her. On my wedding day, on the days my babies were born, I wish she was there to be a part of it, to be a part of my children's lives. Every Christmas when I pull out the decorations I still look at and hold the little hand-sewn stockings and wrappings she made for my Christmas presents.
For many years when I was really small, Grandma Harrison lived right next-door to us. I could see her garden through the backyard fence, and I only had to walk up a small alley to get to her house. I spent so much time there with her! She was my mom's #1 babysitter for me. Whenever one of my older sisters had a baby and mom was gone for a few days, I went to grandma's. How much easier could it be? I still walked to and from school, I could even still play with all my neighborhood friends. When Mom and Dad went to Peru to pick up my brother Mike at the end of his LDS mission, I stayed with grandma. Whenever she was baking bread I was right nearby so I could have a slice while it was still hot, and whenever I asked her she made my two favorite foods for me. My mouth still waters for creamed tuna.
Grandma Harrison was old already by the time I was born. She was born on 30 or 31 October 1894-6 (one of those three years, he parents didn't keep a good record) so by the time I was old enough to know her she was already >75 years old. She lived to be >90. She was never spry. She wasn't the sort who'd sit on the floor with me and play dolls, or who even walked outside with me to watch me ride my bike. We mostly played quiet games of checkers or paper dolls, or read quietly side by side, or she puttered around while I played in her toy room. We watched Lawrence Welk, and she never missed As The World Turns. We hung her nylon stockings to dry, and I colored pictures. She put my just-washed hair up into pin curls. We tied quilts. But I knew she loved me. I think that's what made all the difference. She wasn't a playmate, but she loved me—loved me as much as my mother did.
She later moved to an apartment in The Belvedere downtown, and that was pretty exciting too. My mom would drop me off to stay with her for a couple of nights, and the two of us would toddle next door to Hansen Planetarium to look at all the displays (though she didn't really like the star shows) or right across the street to the ZCMI Center mall, where we'd get lunch in a sit-down restaurant and then browse the old lady stores. Then we'd go back to her apartment for As The World Turns and reruns of Lawrence Welk and I'd look at her silver plated hairbrush and drink white tea (which was just milk, sugar, and hot water) out of her china cups. She'd sometimes send a little something home with me from one of her shelves—I have a beautiful antique glass apothecary jar filled with rose petals from a dozen roses her husband gave her. She disbursed all her meaningful possessions years before she died, right into the hands of her loved ones.
Later yet she moved to a little house one of my mom's sisters owned. I was a teen by then, and would still stay with her for a night or two, and she'd always make me white tea and creamed tuna (usually both nights). I always tried her sugar-free diabetic cookies or candy and wish she had real ones. And we'd play checkers or watch TV or read, and I knew she loved me. She let me have two of her china cups that I always drank white tea out of.
Grandma Harrison had beautiful white, curly hair. I suspect she even cut it in her own bathroom sometimes, and yet she never had to do anything more than wet it to look like she'd just had it done professionally. And I loved her hands. I thought they were so beautiful. Her nails were always long and usually painted, and he hands were just so delicate. She crocheted, she knitted, she sewed, everything without a pattern and very lopsided. I have a hand-sewed asymmetrical cloth doll she made me, wearing a dress of the same fabric as Grandma's muu muu. (The doll's name is Big Mukahamas. One day my sister Joan and I were playing indians with our cloth dolls, and the name stuck.) I just loved looking at her hands. The knuckles were knobbly from arthritis and the veins were prominent through the paper-thin skin, but I thought she should be a hand model.
I was thinking of her hands last night while I painted my nails. Sometimes I still dream of her, dream that she just walks into the room looking a little younger and healthier than when I knew her and we catch up where we left off. I bring in my children and she already knows them all, and she loves them as much as I do. I almost always wake up crying, because I do miss her. And I miss holding her hands.
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
04 December 2010
27 October 2010
Conversation with my cute brother
My brother Mike sends out links and articles to all of us, all day long. Most of them are political; I read some of these, and some I file away in case I feel like reading them later. But he sends out some other stuff too, and today it was an article about Halloween. Here's an excerpt:
I remember the big thing I was warned against as a child was apples. Oh yes, scary apples, because the neighbors were almost certainly inserting razor blades into them, so that when I bit in I would cut up my gums. Packaged chocolate was infinitely preferable to apples. Talk about wacky ideas!
Mike is 14 years older than I am. He was already gadding about hither and yon in his teens when I was tiny. This is what he said to me about his growing up years, when I responded about the Halloween article:
He's right, I've spent a lot of time pondering this very thing. My childhood sounds much like Mike's, although I don't think our mother would have let me ride my bike to Evergreen Park because I'd have to cross two very busy streets. So she was a bit more afraid of traffic those 14 years later. Also, the unsupervised pool age was 14 in my time, but as long as there was someone (anyone!) 14+ years old my mom let me stay and swim. And since I went up by my lonesome to check and see if there was anyone 14+, I did sometimes fudge that rule. I spent all day every day at the pool, never even going home for lunch, arriving at 9 or 10 in the morning and not leaving until 4 or 5, never had to check in, had no cell phone for her to check on me. She just assumed all day long I hadn't drowned and I'd toddle home eventually.
I never remember worrying about lunch at all when I was a kid; Mom wasn't worried either. If I was hungry, I guess I went home or ate a snack with friends. But once I left the house I just stayed gone until I was done with whatever I was doing, sometimes 8 hours later. I know that was all 30+ years ago, but find it hard to believe that in just 30 short years it could go from what I experienced to the overprotective helicopter parenting of today.
Fairview is very small town, very safe; what's more, I have a big acre of grass, lots of trees to climb, during the summer we have a pool, and my very own yard is filled with wonder. So my kids are pretty unscheduled and unsupervised. And my peers/friends always look me askance, because my kids don't go from city league soccer to baseball to football to basketball and back to soccer. And because we don't have a Wii (though we actually are pondering getting one). I make my kids ride their bikes around and rollerblade and sometimes take their younger siblings down to the creek by the horse field. And I am definitely my mom's daughter; I never go with them. Sometimes it's because I'm lazy or don't want to go out in the 90ยบ+ heat, sometimes it's because a little quiet "me" time is precious, sometimes it's because I figure they can do it on their own. (So far, I'm right.)
Safest day of the year. Interesting.
Even when I was a kid, back in the "Bewitched" and "Brady Bunch" costume era, parents were already worried about neighbors poisoning candy. Sure, the folks down the street might smile and wave the rest of the year, but apparently they were just biding their time before stuffing us silly with strychnine-laced Smarties. That was a wacky idea, but we bought it. We still buy it, even though Joel Best, a sociologist at the University of Delaware, has researched the topic and spends every October telling the press that there has never been a single case of any child being killed by a stranger's Halloween candy. As a panel of "experts" on the "Today" show warned viewers recently: Don't let your children trick-or-treat without you "any earlier than age 13, because people put on masks, they put on disguises, and there are still people who do bad things." Perhaps there are. But Elizabeth Letourneau, an associate professor at the Medical University of South Carolina, studied crime statistics from 30 states and found, "There is zero evidence to support the idea that Halloween is a dangerous date for children in terms of child molestation." In fact, she says, "We almost called this paper, 'Halloween: The Safest Day of the Year,' because it was just so incredibly rare to see anything happen on that day."
I remember the big thing I was warned against as a child was apples. Oh yes, scary apples, because the neighbors were almost certainly inserting razor blades into them, so that when I bit in I would cut up my gums. Packaged chocolate was infinitely preferable to apples. Talk about wacky ideas!
Mike is 14 years older than I am. He was already gadding about hither and yon in his teens when I was tiny. This is what he said to me about his growing up years, when I responded about the Halloween article:
In the background there’s a general theme that I have often thought about. Maybe you have too (but I don’t know what life’s like in Fairview). The general theme is: When did my childhood become today’s childhood? I am not being critical of my mother. Heavens, I loved my childhood. I would throw my baseball glove over the handlebars, leave the house after breakfast, not return until lunch, and literally not see an adult in between. The same for the afternoon’s activities. We played baseball for hours anywhere we could. We were sandlot types. I remember many hours on the (summer, meaning no school in session) playground at Rosecrest. But we played a significant share of ball in the street, on pavement. I guess that means we “saw” adults, because we would have to stand aside while cars passed through our game. Of course baseball wasn’t the only thing we played. I would also ride my bicycle to Evergreen Park and we would spend hours playing in the creek, actually outside the fenced area of the park. To the best of my memory, I never even asked permission, other than to “go out and play.” And, of course, we were at the pool just about every single day. The pool rules were (if I remember) that a 12 year old (sibling) could supervise any number of under-12s that a parent was comfortable with. We rarely had an adult with us once Sherri turned 12. Hours and hours of unstructured time, with almost zero adult supervision (although you would feel safe to go to any adult, anywhere if you had trouble).
Our own mother, of 7 children, as said to me that she doesn’t know how parents today do it. For a while I was puzzled, but came to understand that she was commenting on the scenario above. She did not feel like she had to organize playtime and be with her kids every second of the day.
He's right, I've spent a lot of time pondering this very thing. My childhood sounds much like Mike's, although I don't think our mother would have let me ride my bike to Evergreen Park because I'd have to cross two very busy streets. So she was a bit more afraid of traffic those 14 years later. Also, the unsupervised pool age was 14 in my time, but as long as there was someone (anyone!) 14+ years old my mom let me stay and swim. And since I went up by my lonesome to check and see if there was anyone 14+, I did sometimes fudge that rule. I spent all day every day at the pool, never even going home for lunch, arriving at 9 or 10 in the morning and not leaving until 4 or 5, never had to check in, had no cell phone for her to check on me. She just assumed all day long I hadn't drowned and I'd toddle home eventually.
I never remember worrying about lunch at all when I was a kid; Mom wasn't worried either. If I was hungry, I guess I went home or ate a snack with friends. But once I left the house I just stayed gone until I was done with whatever I was doing, sometimes 8 hours later. I know that was all 30+ years ago, but find it hard to believe that in just 30 short years it could go from what I experienced to the overprotective helicopter parenting of today.
Fairview is very small town, very safe; what's more, I have a big acre of grass, lots of trees to climb, during the summer we have a pool, and my very own yard is filled with wonder. So my kids are pretty unscheduled and unsupervised. And my peers/friends always look me askance, because my kids don't go from city league soccer to baseball to football to basketball and back to soccer. And because we don't have a Wii (though we actually are pondering getting one). I make my kids ride their bikes around and rollerblade and sometimes take their younger siblings down to the creek by the horse field. And I am definitely my mom's daughter; I never go with them. Sometimes it's because I'm lazy or don't want to go out in the 90ยบ+ heat, sometimes it's because a little quiet "me" time is precious, sometimes it's because I figure they can do it on their own. (So far, I'm right.)
Safest day of the year. Interesting.
21 May 2010
Adventures in camping...
...preparation! Have a big extended family camp planned for this weekend, have been looking forward to it since last September or so. We haven't even gone camping yet, and we've had a day.
- Emma's ankle (lightly sprained yesterday) is quite swollen today and she can't walk well. Hard, because this is a *hiking* camping trip. So one of us will need to stay back at camp with her during all activities, she obviously can't hike.
- Washing machine was making a bad noise this morning. Called repairman. He fit us in today.
- Went grocery shopping.
- Took Suburban in for oil change. Cars were parked trickily in driveway. Though I was backing out carefully and slowly, I nudged B's little Mazda w/ Suburban. Suburban is strong. B's Mazda rear passenger door is dented all to hell.
- Steady streams of water down into our basement, and we knew not why. Repairman warned us we'd leak a little when he took apart the washer. Cleaning up basement with every towel we have.
- Leaks didn't stop though washer was put back together. Blaine (thankfully working at home today!) sees that as quick as we're wiping the floor, something is puddling up.
- Repairman returns. Diagnoses a broken drain hose. (No prior leak or evidence of leak, the very act of fixing the washer broke the washer.) Repairman doesn't have a hose. He orders one.
- Every towel in my house is soaking/dirty, and I cannot wash them or even spin them out.
- One of B's two jobs wants to talk today about how things are going, and whether he'd consider dumping the other job and working full time there. Good day for "quick" negotiations before we leave. The other job has just these "few quick things" that must be done before we can go.
31 March 2010
*angst*
Background: let me tell you what a fantastic week we had last week. It was our second week of spring break. Wednesday the lovely Angelovics came and visited and stayed with us overnight. Lillian Angelovic was my MTC companion and we went to the same mission. Love her. And now my kids love her kids! Yay. Then we went straight to Joan's on Thursday and were there until Sunday. We visited the X96 studios (more to come on that, hopefully, but I don't want to tip my hand), ate many yummy foods, played wii, and the highlight was the family book club gathering of sisters and nieces. We discussed Jane Eyre amongst myriad other things, and then afterward went out to dinner @ Chipotle (holla, Mitt Romney at the next table!), walked over to a bakery to buy yummy cookies, and then to Nordstrom Rack for some girly shop time.
Here's where the angst came in. That shopping was three days too early to do me any good at all. Rewind! Give me shopping night again!
Why?
(1) Have I mentioned that? Yes, ladies and gents, we're only FIVE DAYS AWAY. I am seriously so excited I keep getting butterflies, and maybe faintly nauseated. I can seriously not wait.
(2) Yesterday I had a "What Not To Wear" fest, watching every clip of Clinton and Stacy online.
1 + 2 inevitably equals
(3) I must have new clothes for the concert. Stacy and Clinton have convinced me I'm a mess, and nothing I currently own will do.
Oh my sisters, oh my nieces, I call do-overs. Won't you please help me find something for the concert? I have five days. SIGH.
Also, a postscript: I have decided (in vain!) that the LDS church simply must start making temple garments that are body shapers. I've thought about this for years. It has to happen. Must. Because in a normal world, I don't think garments and body shapers are symbiotic. Wearing one excludes wearing the other. DON'T MAKE ME CHOOSE!
Here's where the angst came in. That shopping was three days too early to do me any good at all. Rewind! Give me shopping night again!
Why?
(1) Have I mentioned that? Yes, ladies and gents, we're only FIVE DAYS AWAY. I am seriously so excited I keep getting butterflies, and maybe faintly nauseated. I can seriously not wait.
(2) Yesterday I had a "What Not To Wear" fest, watching every clip of Clinton and Stacy online.
1 + 2 inevitably equals
(3) I must have new clothes for the concert. Stacy and Clinton have convinced me I'm a mess, and nothing I currently own will do.
Oh my sisters, oh my nieces, I call do-overs. Won't you please help me find something for the concert? I have five days. SIGH.
Also, a postscript: I have decided (in vain!) that the LDS church simply must start making temple garments that are body shapers. I've thought about this for years. It has to happen. Must. Because in a normal world, I don't think garments and body shapers are symbiotic. Wearing one excludes wearing the other. DON'T MAKE ME CHOOSE!
24 November 2009
Overparenting
Helicopter Parents: The Backlash Against Overparenting - TIME
Absolutely excellent article on why too much bubblewrapping is changing our children. I'm not much of a helicopter, but even I found things in this article that described me, and realized that I really need to backpedal in an area or two.
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Now playing: Muse - Butterflies & Hurricanes
via FoxyTunes
28 August 2009
Priest Lake
August 8-16 we went to Priest Lake in northern Idaho with my sister Joan's family. It's the same cabin where we went for Christmas, and it's a pretty darn long drive. The first few days were sunny, gorgeous, and warm, and the cousins had a great time together in the sand and water.
(This is me, showing my sister my back diving technique.)
Water skiing! I love it so.
The kids loved tubing.
And Libby learned to ski. That's my girl!
But it didn't keep the kids out of the water, and every time the sun peeked out from behind the clouds we rushed down to take advantage of it.
Blaine taking Jackson and Macklin out in the kayak.
The swimming dock
The floating island
We had a totally fantastic trip—so relaxing. The kids all got along together so well, and so did the grown ups. What's not to love?
(This is me, showing my sister my back diving technique.)We rented a boat one day—a day it was cloudy and rainy with brief rays of sun.
Water skiing! I love it so.
The kids loved tubing.
And Libby learned to ski. That's my girl!The rest of the week was cloudy and cooler.
But it didn't keep the kids out of the water, and every time the sun peeked out from behind the clouds we rushed down to take advantage of it.
Blaine taking Jackson and Macklin out in the kayak.
The swimming dock
The floating island
We had a totally fantastic trip—so relaxing. The kids all got along together so well, and so did the grown ups. What's not to love?
04 May 2009
The Ls go to Town
We had a fabulous day yesterday. This is my first week without a calling or a Sunday responsibility in 9+ years because I've always been plucked from one calling directly into another. So since we were open, we took a day off church o_O and drove our crew of nine to Salt Lake City to visit Temple Square. I had no idea where to park—the city is all torn up and being rebuilt around Temple Square, and I thought the only available nearby parking was outrageously expensive—so we parked about ten blocks away in a random free parking lot and caught Trax (the in-city train system) to Temple Square. Trax, as you can imagine, was just as much an attraction to the kiddles as everything else was.
Our family of nine (paired off, bigger ones holding the hands of little ones) marching through the city to catch the train was just as much a spectacle for all the city dwellers and they were for us. Ahaha country folk are so easily amused!
The flowers were gorgeous and the ornamental cherries were just beginning to blossom. It was almost like ohanami.
We went to the Visitors Center and saw films and displays and it was pretty darn churchy. I think we all had a wonderful day. We had dinner with my sister Joan's family and my parents, a lovely sit-around-the-table for the grownups while the children frolicked and romped. It almost made me wish we could skip church every week.
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Now playing: Finger Eleven - Paralyzer
via FoxyTunes
Our family of nine (paired off, bigger ones holding the hands of little ones) marching through the city to catch the train was just as much a spectacle for all the city dwellers and they were for us. Ahaha country folk are so easily amused!
The flowers were gorgeous and the ornamental cherries were just beginning to blossom. It was almost like ohanami.
We went to the Visitors Center and saw films and displays and it was pretty darn churchy. I think we all had a wonderful day. We had dinner with my sister Joan's family and my parents, a lovely sit-around-the-table for the grownups while the children frolicked and romped. It almost made me wish we could skip church every week.
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Now playing: Finger Eleven - Paralyzer
via FoxyTunes
27 January 2009
Rest
Blaine's dad passed away Thursday 22 January. He had type II diabetes and his health had been steadily declining, and we thought he would soon be forced to retire from his job.
Blaine is the eldest son and has many responsibilities, which he's handling with great care. His earnest desire is to take care of all his siblings and to foster peace between them. Though many emotions have been and will continue to surface over the next few days, we are at peace. Blaine's dad pulled away from the family years ago, and we mourned him then; this is sort of the last page in a book we've mostly read.
The funeral will be on Friday.
Blaine is the eldest son and has many responsibilities, which he's handling with great care. His earnest desire is to take care of all his siblings and to foster peace between them. Though many emotions have been and will continue to surface over the next few days, we are at peace. Blaine's dad pulled away from the family years ago, and we mourned him then; this is sort of the last page in a book we've mostly read.
The funeral will be on Friday.
09 January 2009
Party ANIMALS
I really want to make the long breaks we take from school fun, instead of just lounging about doing nothing day after day (which is, alas, our usual M.O.). I think we've done pretty well this break. :) Of course we had the great trip to the cabin for Christmas, and last weekend we went ice skating at a rink in Provo (a 2002 Olympic hockey venue! *fanfare*). Last night we had Emma's local school friends—not the boarding students, who are still at home for the holiday—here for a night of games. It was nonstop laughter and soda and pizza and they had a great time. And today we're going to SLC to my sister's house to play with her kids, their Christmas presents, and their Wii. Tomorrow we'll go with sister's family to an indoor swim park, the kind that has a current pool and indoor water slides and all those things kids turn on and off and spray each other.
Next Tuesday it's back to the regularly scheduled program, but for now we're still living it up. And I think we've had a great vacation. :)
Emma's birthday was Monday. She had probably the best birthday a 15YO can possibly have. Her main (only?) gift was a new cell phone. It's way nicer than mine! And she loved it. Then later in the day her cute little used laptop that we bought used to try to get her through the school year finally, after several pricey repairs, had something go wrong we weren't willing to pay to fix, so we ordered her a brand spankin' new MacBook for school. It arrived yesterday. Can you imagine a 15YO girl more electronically blessed? Neither can I.
I'm off now to pack my little bag and drag my swimsuit out of the cobwebby corners of the bottom drawer, so I can have another adventure this weekend. *waves*
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Now playing: Sia - Breathe Me
via FoxyTunes
Next Tuesday it's back to the regularly scheduled program, but for now we're still living it up. And I think we've had a great vacation. :)
Emma's birthday was Monday. She had probably the best birthday a 15YO can possibly have. Her main (only?) gift was a new cell phone. It's way nicer than mine! And she loved it. Then later in the day her cute little used laptop that we bought used to try to get her through the school year finally, after several pricey repairs, had something go wrong we weren't willing to pay to fix, so we ordered her a brand spankin' new MacBook for school. It arrived yesterday. Can you imagine a 15YO girl more electronically blessed? Neither can I.
I'm off now to pack my little bag and drag my swimsuit out of the cobwebby corners of the bottom drawer, so I can have another adventure this weekend. *waves*
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Now playing: Sia - Breathe Me
via FoxyTunes
30 December 2008
"Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home."
(quote by Matsuo Basho)
We're home! We slept in our own cuddly little beds last night. We had the best cabin Christmas. Click on any photo below to go to the photo stream and see many, many more.
Tuesday 23 December: We drove through a couple of snow storms on the way up, but even so it wasn't bad driving. There was snow on the roads, but our 4WD totally handled it. Sometimes we had to drive slowly, sometimes we could almost travel 65MPH, and we made it from Salt Lake City (where most of my family lives) to the cabin in one long day. We unloaded the car and trailer and then crash-landed into beds, exhausted.
Wednesday 24 December: Woke up to a few inches of new snow. We did our minimal Christmas decorating—put up the small tree, a few ornaments, and the one string of lights, put the presents under the tree. And then the kids went out into the wonderland of snow, which they did every day. We decorated a gingerbread house, which we ate that evening (Christmas Eve!) while we watched a Christmas movie.
So many presents...
...we even had to stuff them around the back of the tree :)
(this one is after all the kids were in bed and all the presents were out)
Thursday 25 December: Woke up to a few inches of new snow, and it snowed all day. Christmas morning was wonderful, everyone was thrilled with their presents, which is always a relief for the parents. They played happily for an hour or two, and then bundled up and went out into the snow again.
Friday 26 December: More new snow that continued all day, more playing with toys, more enjoying the cabin.
Saturday 27 December: We'd gotten at least six more inches of snow, so we all went out for a last romp. Then it was indoors to pack, clean up, and make Christmas cookies. :)
Sunday 28 December: The first morning we didn't wake to a layer of new snow, which was great since we'd plowed out the evening before in preparation for getting the car and trailer back out of the driveway. We left early and started the journey home. Near the cabin it was snowing lightly, but within an hour and a half as we approached Coeur D'Alene, where Blaine's grandparents live, it was slushy rainy snow. The further south we went, the warmer it got and the rainier it was. If someone were telling me this as a story, I'd think, that makes for easier traveling. But it didn't. It was slushy and way more slippery than just the snow was, and we went slower. By afternoon it was clear we wouldn't make it home. So we decided to stay in a motel. This is a pretty rare thing for the kiddles, and they were excited. We got a "suite" (which is two queens and a pull-out bed in the sofa *eyeroll*) and watched a DVD before sleeping hard. This was the one and only time during the trip we had internet access, and Emma was so excited to check her final grades for the semester. She got all A+ again, all seven classes and both extra-curriculars. SO PROUD OF HER.
Monday 29 December: Breakfast, driving, picking up everything from Salt Lake we'd accidentally left on our way through, visiting family, and then, home. We had to shovel out our walks and driveway before we could even pull in and unload. It was a lot of happy, weary Ls that finally flopped into bed yesterday evening. :)
So glad we went, despite all the work it was to pack everything up there and back, and the long, long drives.
We're home! We slept in our own cuddly little beds last night. We had the best cabin Christmas. Click on any photo below to go to the photo stream and see many, many more.
Tuesday 23 December: We drove through a couple of snow storms on the way up, but even so it wasn't bad driving. There was snow on the roads, but our 4WD totally handled it. Sometimes we had to drive slowly, sometimes we could almost travel 65MPH, and we made it from Salt Lake City (where most of my family lives) to the cabin in one long day. We unloaded the car and trailer and then crash-landed into beds, exhausted.
Wednesday 24 December: Woke up to a few inches of new snow. We did our minimal Christmas decorating—put up the small tree, a few ornaments, and the one string of lights, put the presents under the tree. And then the kids went out into the wonderland of snow, which they did every day. We decorated a gingerbread house, which we ate that evening (Christmas Eve!) while we watched a Christmas movie.
So many presents...
...we even had to stuff them around the back of the tree :)
(this one is after all the kids were in bed and all the presents were out)
Thursday 25 December: Woke up to a few inches of new snow, and it snowed all day. Christmas morning was wonderful, everyone was thrilled with their presents, which is always a relief for the parents. They played happily for an hour or two, and then bundled up and went out into the snow again.
Friday 26 December: More new snow that continued all day, more playing with toys, more enjoying the cabin.
Saturday 27 December: We'd gotten at least six more inches of snow, so we all went out for a last romp. Then it was indoors to pack, clean up, and make Christmas cookies. :)
Sunday 28 December: The first morning we didn't wake to a layer of new snow, which was great since we'd plowed out the evening before in preparation for getting the car and trailer back out of the driveway. We left early and started the journey home. Near the cabin it was snowing lightly, but within an hour and a half as we approached Coeur D'Alene, where Blaine's grandparents live, it was slushy rainy snow. The further south we went, the warmer it got and the rainier it was. If someone were telling me this as a story, I'd think, that makes for easier traveling. But it didn't. It was slushy and way more slippery than just the snow was, and we went slower. By afternoon it was clear we wouldn't make it home. So we decided to stay in a motel. This is a pretty rare thing for the kiddles, and they were excited. We got a "suite" (which is two queens and a pull-out bed in the sofa *eyeroll*) and watched a DVD before sleeping hard. This was the one and only time during the trip we had internet access, and Emma was so excited to check her final grades for the semester. She got all A+ again, all seven classes and both extra-curriculars. SO PROUD OF HER.
Monday 29 December: Breakfast, driving, picking up everything from Salt Lake we'd accidentally left on our way through, visiting family, and then, home. We had to shovel out our walks and driveway before we could even pull in and unload. It was a lot of happy, weary Ls that finally flopped into bed yesterday evening. :)
So glad we went, despite all the work it was to pack everything up there and back, and the long, long drives.
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